Tuesday Word: solivagant

[ellesieg.livejournal.com]

Solivagant means "wandering alone," or "a solitary wanderer." I am tempted to apply it to the sorry state you find yourself in after accompanying a friend to the mall and then remembering that spending more than half an hour in one, if that, is only bearable if you adopt the brisk pace and glassy stare of a veteran mall walker. However, it seems to refer more to a habit or lifestyle than a behavior that is hastily adopted and discarded. As long as they eschew companions, someone who travels from place to place, working for just long enough to be able to afford a bus ticket to the next town, could be called solivagant (or solivagous), as could someone who has adopted a rootless existence for spiritual reasons.

Of course I really got this one stuck in my head after I plugged it into Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." I solivage, I solivage. There is no verb form of solivagant..so how punk rock would that have been?

Solivagant comes from the Latin sōlus (alone) and vagārī (to wander).

Comments

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I find this an ugly word. That's not a criticism of you though!

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

You'd think, given the Latin root, there would be a verb form.

---L.

[carlalute.livejournal.com]

Witness the power of English! We can make a verb out of anything!

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

We can verb almost anything, anyway.

---L.